Will Arnett

Will Forte may have left behind his eight-year gig at “Saturday Night Live,” but he’s still managing to keep his show-biz plate very full.

The Lafayette native makes a guest appearance on the new NBC comedy, “Up All Night” (8 p.m. tonight), where he plays a very cool dad and “Zen surfer” named Reed who offers some offbeat advice to Chris (Will Arnett), who has been concerned about his lackluster, post-pregnancy love life with Reagan (Christina Applegate).

“It’s very new-agey advice. It’s all advice that I would give also, you know,” Forte told journalists on a conference call this week. “It all seemed like perfectly reasonable advice to me. … I feel like he’s trying to get in the mind of women and see (things) through their eyes. … But I don’t know, ultimately can any man really understand the perspective of a woman?”

Meanwhile, Forte might not be the best person to issue much in the way of parental advice.

“I don’t have a kid. I’m 41 years old and still no kids. I’m driving my mom crazy,” Forte said.

Even before he left “SNL,” Forte had established himself as a standout guest star on several network sitcoms, including “Parks and Recreation,” “How I Met Your Mother,” and most notably, as Jenna’s hilarious cross-dressing lover on “30 Rock.” For his role on “Up All Night,” he said he tried hard not to avoid doing a “Spicoli rip-off,” referring to Sean Penn’s famous doper/slacker in “Fast Times at Ridgemont High.”

In addition to his TV roles, Forte continues to land movie parts. He recently finished shooting “I Hate You Dad” with Adam Sandler. And next week, he begins production in Atlanta on “Neighborhood Watch,” with Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn and Jonah Hill.

Incidentally, tonight’s episode of “Up All Night” will carry some additional East Bay flavor. Also dropping by for a guest stint is Jorma Taccone, the Berkeley-bred member of the Lonely Island comedy trio and writer for “SNL.”

Following on the heels of his Oscar-worthy performance in Saints Row 2, Neil Patrick Harris is set to portray the villain in a game I’ve previously never heard of called Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard.

According to the press release Eat Lead is a parody of shooters in which 80s video game character Matt Hazard (played by Will Arnett, who is not NPH) is brought out of retirement for a next-gen comeback by a presumably evil software company CEO (played by NPH), only to find that it’s all a plot to kill Hazard once and for all.

I’m not sure how much sense that makes but I like parodies and I like NPH so I’m willing to give this a shot when it’s released Q1 2009.